Martial Arts

Becoming Bruce Lee

World adventures are all well and good. There is no question they help out with a family’s bankroll and decorative objects. But what about Sims personally? How can a Sim improve his life and his personal knowledge of the world?

Ladies and gentlemen: meet the Falkons! Again!

The Falkons are now in their intended home of Falkon Towers, happily living their virtual lives with unconventional jobs. Pyro is, of course, making money hand-over-fist due to his writing career, showing the world that his literary abilities makes Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare look like talentless hacks.

But still, there is something missing. The Falkon brothers didn’t know what it was until the expansion pack was released, but now, they have new goals to seek and conquer.

On a trip to China, Pyro bought and brought home a training dummy and a brick breaker thingy. Pete, the athletic brother, obviously took to these like Winnie the Pooh takes to honey. Plus, the Martial Arts skill is the only thing standing between you and a mummy’s curse if gets you in Egypt, and Pete wants to take no chances.

Working out on either Martial Arts object will build the Martial Arts skill; the training dummy also works on the Athletic skill simultaneously. Both activities count as exercise: work on them too long, and your Sim will get fatigued, forcing him to stop working out at all for eight hours.

Pete starts his martial arts career by attacking the training dummy with weak slaps and a lot of cowering. Once he hits level 2, he is then allowed to switch to the board breaker. The board breaker definitely raises the Martial Arts skill much faster, essentially making the training dummy useless for all but the most rookie Sims. However, it’s still important to have around…

See, Pete interacts with the board breaker, and he gets to choose one of five types of boards: Foam, Balsa, Oak, Thin Stone, and Space Rock. He can pick any at any time… but there is a penalty for him picking something a bit high in level. Pete, thinking entirely too highly of himself, goes for a Space Rock board and immediately hurts his hand smacking it. This gives him the “Hurt Hand!” debuff, which bans him from using the board breaker for three hours.

Despite having the “Hurt Hand!” debuff, Pete is still allowed to use the training dummy. This is why you want to always keep one around anyway: it’s a good backup for Sims who injure themselves, as well as veterans of martial arts to train rookies. Once the debuff clears, Pete switches back to working on the board breaker, this time starting with the Foam-type boards.

Now, I watch the number of boards Pete is attempting to break: as Pete works on the board breaker and levels up his Martial Arts skill, he stacks more boards together. He can stack up to four or five boards, but at that point, it’s in Pete’s best interest to upgrade to the next board. The Martial Arts skill gains faster as he increases what, exactly, he’s breaking in half.

Of course, the one thing you’ll want to watch for is a Want called “Break X Boards,” where X is some number that tends to range from 10 to 250. If Pete gets that Want, I switch him back to Foam boards. Although this doesn’t increase his Martial Arts skill all that much, that’s not the point; we’re going for quantity over quality in that case.

Getting to the top level of the board breaker is very profitable. Pete can start breaking Space Rock boards around level 8 or 9 in Martial Arts. At that point, any time he breaks a Space Rock board, he creates a random gem immediately. Break a few boards, cut the gems, and in no time he’s rolling in Simoleons. Considering that boards don’t cost any money, this is a no-risk, all-profit venture! But then, Pete isn’t in this for the money: he’s in this for the honor.

There is a third way to gain Martial Arts as well. Once Pete hits level 5 of Martial Arts, he is able to use a self-interaction called “Meditate” anywhere, anytime. Meditating freezes all six need meters, allowing your Sim to relax for awhile. Meditate long enough, and your Sim do a one-shot teleport around the neighborhood. Meditating at all increases the Martial Arts skill, and only the Martial Arts skill; also, it increases pretty slowly too. Still, meditating is nice if you’re trying to delay your Sim’s actions for a few hours but don’t want to go to bed, for example.

Now, Pete isn’t training merely for self-defense. Over in China, the Chinese Sims are holding constant martial arts tournaments. Although Pete could spar with literally anyone, even in Pyroville, the real money and prizes are across the Pacific Ocean. Though he can enter the tournament at anytime, Pete is a bit of a perfectionist like his brother: Pete waits until he hits level 10 of Martial Arts before flying over.

Once in China, Pete can start a martial arts tournament wherever he is standing. He goes to his inventory, pulls out his cell phone, then uses “Call Sim… > Challenge Spar Tournament Contender” interaction. If you’re a fan of chess tournaments, you’ll know this system is basically the same thing.

So Pete makes his call, and presently his first opponent, Changpu Chou, comes over to the Base Camp. After a quick introduction, Pete uses the “Challenge to a Ranked Sparring Match” social interaction. He agrees, Pete automatically changes into his martial arts outfit, and it’s on!

The fight is wholly out of your control: you just have to hope that training and discipline were enough. In this case… it isn’t. Pete loses 2-1, despite having a 10 in Martial Arts. Matches like this are not just based on your belt color: they are partly based off an invisible experience bar. The more matches you participate in, the better your chance of actually winning. Keep at it, young grasshopper!

As it is, Pete immediately challenges Changpu to a rematch, and beats him. Then, Pete calls up his next opponent, invites him over, and restarts the process. After a few matches, Pete gets hungry and stinky, and starts going on a losing streak. This is not unrelated: as with most actions in the game, the Sim’s overall mood contributes to his ability. As he gets hungry and tired, he starts to lose… so that’s when it’s time to call it a night, eat dinner, take a shower, and have a good night’s sleep. In this case, Pete’s Eye Candy superpower is also working against him: he is giving a buff to his opponent, increasing their mood without doing anything for his own.

In any case, Pete keeps working on it the next day, and the next… and then his vacation is sadly over. After a mere three days, he’s racked up a record of 8-6… not the best, but it’s a start, and he’s gained two ranks in his tournament standings. The tournament rankings are basically arbitrary: there are five levels, you start at 0, and winning a bunch of matches kicks you up a level. Getting to level 5, the top level, doesn’t bring any direct reward, but the bragging rights are nice. Hitting that also constitutes a “tournament win,” in case you have that wish added as a promise.